


Tidewaters

by Nautilusopus



Series: FFVII Halloween Week 2019 [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Costume Parties & Masquerades, Cultural References, Festivals, Found Families, Gen, Holidays, Modern Royalty, Post-Canon, dirge and crisis core still not canon can go suck a dick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 02:37:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21228413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nautilusopus/pseuds/Nautilusopus
Summary: Yuffie appreciates her culture together with some friends, even if said "appreciation" is practically mandatory.(Written for FFVII Halloween Week: Day 4 - Costumes and Candy)





	Tidewaters

**Author's Note:**

> The only one I think turned out decent. Also about time one of these wasn't a giant fucking downer. Thanks to la-regina-scrive for the quick beta.
> 
> EDIT: [Also holy fucking shit please everyone look at this absolutely amazing art DarthTofu did of Cloud, Yuffie, and Nanaki I am blown the fuck away](https://tofuthebold.tumblr.com/post/637041126624329728/nautilusopus-tofuthebold-based-on-tidewaters-by)
> 
> Are you looking yet I feel like you're not

"Surely it's not _that_ bad?" asked Nanaki, and Yuffie couldn't help but snort in disbelief.

"It isn't, she's just being a brat," replied Cloud from somewhere to her right. Not that she could turn to look very well-- Yuffie had been forced to hold still for the last hour while she was dolled up. Let it never be said she didn't make sacrifices for her country.

"You look just as stupid as I do," she shot back, "and at least you had a choice to duck out."

"No one looks as stupid as you do," he said, picking at his nails, as though she hadn't personally invited him here, and as though that wasn't a huge deal, and as though he didn't know that, even if her invitation had started with the phrase _misery loves company. _Granted, she'd also partially done it for the message she hoped it'd send -- namely, appointing an obvious foreigner to a role this important of an event now being celebrated by two former Shinra colonies after the collapse of the company. Now that Wutai had sovereignty again, she'd been forced to actually start thinking about the consequences of her actions, and it was _the worst._

Kind of like right now. She was wearing a teal and blue silk outfit -- traditional Wutaian regalia fit for the imperial family, silver threads woven throughout it in wave patterns, that had belonged to her mother and had taken ten minutes to put on. Her ears hurt from the heavy coral and jade earrings adorning them, each half the span of her palm. At present there was someone fussing over her hair, tying it back and weaving yet more finery into it, actually _sewing_ it into place with a needle and golden thread. And her face felt oily and disgusting from the elaborate make-up that had been applied to it -- skin papered over in white, eyes highlighted with elaborate swirls of blue and silver, reminiscent of the sea, or perhaps Da-chao's scales. She forgot which they were supposed to actually represent. She should probably know this, should've looked it up _before_ the Festival of the Tides was about to start. Maybe it was the sea? She was supposed to represent the sea, but then Da-chao lived _in_ the sea so maybe it could have been Da-chao too. Shit.

Before she'd at least been allowed to wear something _fun_. Last year she'd gone as a tonberry -- managed to use an actual knife she'd gotten off a dead one as a prop, too. The year before, she hadn't even gone home, instead spending the night with the small Wutaian community that lived in Edge, as well as Tifa, who'd tagged along out of curiosity. But she was twenty now, which meant she'd have to participate in a bunch of stuffy traditionalism in preparation to take the throne one day.

The basic idea was that, with peak fishing season starting up, wicked spirits would be flooding in from all directions to steal fish, sink ships, bring storms, and drag sailors away into the ocean. Thus, everyone would wear costumes so the spirits couldn't tell who was one of them, and who was a person. Then, they would honour Da-chao in the hopes that he would provide safe passage to and from the sea, and guide fat, hearty fish into the nets of the fishermen. Originally masks and elaborate makeup were worn more often, but as centuries went by the whole thing just turned into one big costume party as soon as the initial announcement celebration was over with.

The one she was supposed to be doing in thirty minutes. She could barely _walk_ without tripping over the hem of her outfit, and here she was being asked to _dance_ in it. Sure, she'd been practising, but...

Nanaki was faring the best out of all of them, having escaped with light blue beads woven into his mane and a quick brushing out of his fur. He'd been nice enough in the beginning to offer to take her place, at least.

"I could pass very well as a human," Nanaki had said. "I did it before, remember?"

Yuffie did remember, and thanked him for his offer, and politely declined.

Cloud, meanwhile, had also been forced to sit still for an hour, but at least he didn't have to do so while drowning under four layers of clothing. His role as one of three messengers of the sea had his entire lower jaw and neck painted with deep blue waves, with stylised sea foam consuming the rest of his face -- the messenger of the resting sea. The messengers of the bountiful and tempestuous seas were presumably off somewhere else, having enough sense to not barge into this lavishly decorated room and bother _the_ Lady Kisaragi, unlike _some_ people.

They'd given him a dark blue, less adorned version of her own outfit that was tailored for men, but the attendants had long since given up on getting his hair to lie flat.

She'd be expected to dance with all three messengers at the end of the ceremony, one after another, which meant she'd be doing triple the work wearing four times the clothing and an extra ten pounds in silver and jade. Ugh. _Ugh._

"Aeris once told me you rock a dress pretty well," she said, half joking, half desperately hoping he'd actually say yes. "Sure you don't wanna switch? You'd probably wear it better."

"Something tells me your adoring public wouldn't exactly be on board for that," he said. His face fell a little. "I'm still not even sure they're okay with _this_."

"Well, tough titties," said Yuffie. "'Cause I invited you, and I wouldn't be sharing this with you if I didn't think it was worth sharing." And then she added in a rush, before things had a chance to get too mushy -- "But if you drop me on stage I'll have you executed."

"Duly noted," said Cloud, but there was a smile in his voice anyway.

A knock on the door startled her enough to cause her to jump, and immediately regretted it as the heavy jewelry threaded through her hair sharply yanked its way out before the attendant had a chance to finish securing it. He sighed heavily and began rethreading everything as Yuffie shouted a quick, "Door's unlocked!"

Tifa hesitantly let herself in, gasping when she saw Yuffie. "Holy shit, you look gorgeous."

Yuffie merely scowled deeper -- or at least, as deeply as she could with her face all glued in place like this.

"Don't tell her that," quipped Nanaki. "She'll combust out of shame."

"She does!" objected Tifa. "You do," she continued, turning to Yuffie.

"It itches," she said. She watched longingly as Tifa tore the wrapper off a puffed rice and honey snack and took a bite, not having to worry about wrecking any elaborate makeup or hand-woven silks. She too was wearing blue, albeit in the form of a respectable-looking evening gown. But at least Tifa would get the chance to change into an actual costume after the ceremony.

Finally, _finally_ the attendant finished with her hair and, with one last reminder to keep an eye on the time, left the room.

"You've been pretty bummed about this all night," said Cloud suddenly. "No one's _making_ you do this, right?"

"...Not really," she said, considering it. "Just..." she looked at Nanaki imploringly. Nanaki stared back, more confused than anything else.

Yuffie sighed. "It's been so long since we could do all the important, non-kitschy parts of the Tide Festival I'd kinda forgotten I don't really like them. And that's -- that's an awful way to feel about something like this, right? Especially from -- well, me. I know they're important or whatever -- I do, I swear, I know this means a lot to all the people out there too, but..."

"...Is that the real reason I'm here?" asked Cloud, rolling his eyes slightly. "You really weren't kidding about wanting to drag someone down with you, huh?"

"No! I -- yeah, sure?" fumbled Yuffie. "Look, just... this is important. To the people of Wutai, I mean. And... I kinda want it to be important to me, too." She shrugged, now that she was finally allowed to without someone tutting about her hair over her shoulder. "So..."

She could feel eyes on her from the other three occupants of the room, and suddenly she was grateful for all the crap caked onto her face, hiding how pink she was sure she was getting.

But all Cloud did was straighten up a bit further and say, in a peculiar tone of voice that had her going even redder, "It's an honour and a privilege to be here, Lady Kisaragi."

Yuffie just grunted gracelessly and prayed Vincent would be waiting after the show with enough booze to knock her on her ass for the next month.

Eventually Nanaki and Tifa were herded out of the dressing room, only leaving Nanaki time to blurt out a quick, "You'll do wonderfully!", and Yuffie and Cloud were led backstage, joined by the other two messengers and her father.

"I'm proud of you," said Godo, squeezing her shoulder, grinning ear from ear. "Always have been."

And then the crowd went silent, and there was no more time for words.

The minute she stepped out onto the outdoor stage, she was assaulted from all directions by a whirlwind of deafening bangs and blinding flashes from fireworks, the smell of frying fish and red bean buns being sold by every street vendor in the city, the roar of the crowd, the rustle of candy wrappers, the dim glow of multicoloured lanterns decorating the eaves of buildings...

She took a deep breath, and at the first drum beat she began to move.

* * *

The entire ceremony was over in the most stressful half hour of her life. Cloud had obviously been practising, thank god, because the man seemed to naturally lack anything resembling rhythm. Tifa with her music background probably would have been a more ideal pick to send the same sort of message she was intending, but the second Yuffie had mentioned the phrase "public performance" she'd gone furiously red and immediately declined. Cloud, at the very least, had something resembling theatre experience. Even if it was in the form of his short-lived foray into crossdressing, and a single trashy play he and Aeris had been roped into at the last second which he'd proceeded to crash and burn in with a smile on his face. And Yuffie liked to consider herself a pretty good liar, which was really all stage presence was.

Even so, it was a relief to be able to take most of the frilly crap off her head and demand that Cloud carry her around piggyback for the rest of the evening, because dancing barefoot was _hard_ and like hell she was walking another step.

They got a lot of looks from the general public that way: Nanaki, his species not exactly well-known, garnering a great deal of staring from curious children and a few nervous adults; Cloud, still in full costume, the only towheaded person around for miles, mako eyes shining through the facepaint; and Wutaian Heiress Lady Yuffie Kisaragi riding atop his shoulders in all her glory, occasionally lowering the fried, sugary dough she'd been eating for Cloud to take a hands-free bite as well. About the only normal one in their entourage was Tifa in her moogle costume, with her headband decorated with the ears and antennae and her back adorned with a pair of wings she'd lovingly sewn herself.

They were flagged down by Vincent and Reeve. Like Cid and Barret, neither had bothered to dress up for the occasion, and both had opted for sleek dinner suits instead, with Vincent having actually cut and groomed his hair for once. Yuffie decided he looked like a vampire anyway, as per usual, and made up her mind to tease him about it at least once before the end of the night.

"Barret has seen to saving us a couple tables at the park," he said curtly, his voice barely audible over the din of the crowd. This was the most human contact they'd forced him to have in _months_. Well, too bad. If Mr. Six-Different-Anxiety-Disorders-In-A-Trenchcoat had managed to perform live in front of an audience, Mr. I'm-Going-To-Sit-In-My-Sad-Empty-Apartment-And-Drink-Wine-And-Send-Everyone-Nonsensical-Texts-Because-I-Don't-Know-What-Cell-Phones-Are could stand to be in public for one evening.

"Short ribs," said Nanaki. Not a question. He'd probably smelled it on Vincent's clothes or something.

Vincent nodded. "I told them who'd be fronting the bill, as well," he added, "but I don't think they'll believe me until the party in question arrives in the flesh."

"Then they won't even have the order started," said Yuffie, scowling. "Why didn't you grab me sooner?"

"Wardrobe malfunction," he said, shrugging.

"What he means," said Reeve, "is that Denzel had some more last minute reconsiderations on his costume and is in the bathroom sulking. Cid's trying to calm him down."

Beneath her, she heard Cloud sigh. He and Marlene had been so dead-set on going as more traditional Wutaian demons, but apparently he'd picked a bad time to decide he looked stupid again.

"I'll talk to him," said Cloud, before crouching in front of Tifa. "Can I get a brave volunteer to take up the mantle of brat-carrying?"

"I could still totally count this as dropping me," said Yuffie casually, unhooking a leg from Cloud's shoulder anyway.

"'Gee Cloud, thanks for' -- oof!" Whatever else the two of them were going to say was promptly forgotten as Tifa instead opted to pick Cloud up with Yuffie still on top, and she locked her legs around Cloud's neck to maintain her grip.

"I already have two crabby children to deal with," said Tifa, walking them over to the table after Vincent. "I'm not dealing with four. Let's get something to eat."

Yuffie gradually eased up her grip on Cloud's neck enough to appreciate the view from being this high up. As she stared out across the sea of light and colour, the ocean glittering in the distance with red and gold from reflected fireworks and stars alike, she couldn't help but feel a hint of pride at it all anyway.


End file.
